Mismatched
by Iggy Paulin
Summary: He's always hated those eyes, never did him any good anywhere he went.


**Mismatched**

One brown, one blue. Elwood stared at himself in the mirror, his mismatched eyes staring back at him. He's always hated those eyes, never did him any good anywhere he went. In the orphanage he got taunted and mocked, in prison he got beat up just because he was different. Wasn't like he could do anything about the way he was born other than hate himself for it.

Jake never bothered him about it, didn't say anything either. Not even when he took to wearing those sunglasses he stole from some kid at the public pool, Ray Ban's, expensive stuff. The nuns at the orphanage didn't even notice, and if they did, they sure as hell didn't say anything. Because if they had the head penguin would have come running for him with her ruler at the ready, punish him for taking things that aren't his.

Then came the suits, black. The hats, black. Everything, but the shirts and socks were black. Their underwear would probably be black too if they could afford any. Of course they had the standardized stuff they got once every six months, but those things were starched to death and itchy like you wouldn't believe, better to be without. It was about that time that they picked out their last name too, Blues. Inspired by their surrogate father Curtis, who inspired just about everything else too. Since then they were know as the Blues brothers, nothing had ever felt that right before.

A few years after that, the day he turned fourteen he picked up a harmonica for the first time and fell in love. There was so much life in the tiny instrument, each note a different color to his eyes. He spent many hours a day in Curtis' basement abode learning how to play, he never even got tired. About a month after he started to play he stole a black leather briefcase from a business man at a cafe and took to cuffing himself to it with a pair of ankle cuffs he stole from an erotica store on a seedy street corner downtown. He needed someplace safe to keep his harp.

Towards the end of their stay at the St. Helen of the Blessed Shroud orphanage him and his brother created a band together with some of their schoolmates. They made up a good band and the public agreed. With the help of their booking agent Maury Slein they got many of the best gigs around, everything from Blues bars and clubs to county fairs. They never failed to make that audience roar. But then everything went wrong.

Got themselves stuck in debt with several hotels where they were unable to pay their bills. And because of everyone's mess Jake got arrested when he tried to rob a gas station so that they could pay what they owed and get away. Elwood knows he should have seen it coming, since when had him and Jake ever done anything that didn't land them in trouble sooner or later.

Three years later Jake got out again, but his freedom lasted only for eleven days before they both got put in chains and locked up behind the walls of Joliet. Had the most impressive charge list in quite a while too. Felonious motor vehicle assault, over seven hundred violations of the highway traffic act and damages, both public and private, in excess of $24,000,000. Impressive. They even got themselves a record deal while they were at it. And not to mention the 56 moving violations and the 114 parking warrants he had from before. Didn't even matter to the judge that it had been for a good cause.

And now, 18 years later, he was standing in the bathroom of a diner, run by the same man that him and Jake scammed out of $300 during that crazy week, with no brother and no father. The rest of the band are sitting outside eating except for Buster and Mighty Mack who are in the room with him. They are all decked out in black suits like always, keeping the formation and invoking respect from everyone they meet. Yet again he's gotten them stuck in a rut. They've got half of the Illinois law enforcement after them followed up by the Russian Mafia, just like old times. Won't take long before the church start pursuing them too when they realize that Buster is gone and not coming back anytime soon. Kidnapping an orphan, yet another crime to add onto his mile long record, even if the kid came along of his own free will.

His hat and glasses are on the counter top in front of him, taken off so that Mack could lather him with shaving cream, all over his face, his hair, everything. Leaving just a pair of mismatched eyes to stare back at him from the mirror. One blue, one brown. Neither Mack nor Buster say anything about it, they just keep doing what they were told to do. When Mack is done with him he looks like a demented snowball, or maybe an asylum escapee, doesn't matter much so long as the cops outside don't recognize him. He puts the Ray Ban's and his hat back on. Time to run.


End file.
